One of the best things to do during the summer in Connecticut is check out Harbor Brew Fest in Bridgeport. There are always a ton of beers that we’ve never tried before and sometimes you get tastes of local CT brews that are in the development stages. One such place that we discovered this summer wasAspetuck Brew Lab run by the husband and wife team of Peter Cowles and Tara Kasaks Cowles, at the time planning to open in Fairfield. Tara is the co-founder and COO, so she’ll be handling the sales, management, and some of the marketing for the brewery, while Peter (the other co-founder) is the CEO and Chief Beer Scientist. In terms of making beer, he’s no n00b, having taken in many awards and medals in national beer competitions and even seeing his Black IPA (Sir Blackheart) being chosen by Heartland Brewery as Best-in-Show with the honor of having his beer being poured out for an entire month at their NYC spots.

The new logo sporting Black Rock!

Well, fast forward to yesterday when they finally got their approval from Bridgeport to set up their brewery and taproom at 3389 Fairfield Avenue in the Black Rock neighborhood. This is just the first of many things to happen to get them to opening day such as TTB and state approval, designs, adding in equipment, and (of course) brewing.

At the time we met Peter and Tara, we had the chance to try the Saison and their Pedro Negro Black IPA which were both great, full of flavor, and definitely helped us look forward to their opening. Here are some of the beers that they’ve been brewing up that you just might see on tap:

🍺 Pedro Negro Black IPA

🍺 IPA (West Coast style)

🍺 West Coast Red

🍺 Double Mongrel Imperial India Red Ale

🍺 ScreWitte Belgian Wit

🍺 Risque Imperial Stout

🍺 Saison

🍺 The BC RyeBlond Ale

🍺 RazPucker Raspberry Berliner Weisse

As we get more from Aspetuck Brew Lab, we’ll be sure to share all the deets. For now, think warm, hoppy thoughts.

[…] It’s fun to make friends in the beer world . . . because the beer world employs some of the coolest, down-to-earth, nicest peeps we’ve ever met. Case in point: Peter Cowles and Tara Kasaks Cowles from Aspetuck Brew Lab (see all the background details in our February post). […]